Optical navigation system for rotary control based non-contact controller
The controller of the present invention includes an optical navigation system which is responsive to movement, velocity of position of a rotatable platter. The optical navigation system is responsive to rotation of the rotatable platter and is further responsive to at least one degree of freedom of tilting of the rotatable platter. The rotatable platter typically includes a textured pattern so that the optical navigation system can acquire sequential surface images of the textured pattern.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to a rotary non-contact controller. In particular, the invention pertains to an optical navigation system with at least two degrees of freedom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, there are many kinds of rotary controller devices. However, it has been difficult to design practical controllers with sufficient size and resolution for certain applications. In addition, it has been difficult to design a rotary controller with at least two degrees of freedom, one rotational, and the other with an axis perpendicular to the axis of rotation. For example, a large rotary control wheel on jog CD players for disc jockey applications generally does not have sufficient resolution and only a single degree of freedom.
In addition, contact controller have had substantial maintenance concerns as “contact” of the moving parts inherently causes wear and tear.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a controller with at least two degrees of freedom, for the control of at least two independent variables.
It is therefore a further object of the present invention to provide a controller which maintains simple and intuitive use for the user.
It is therefore a still further object of the present invention to provide a high resolution, high speed, multi-axis controller.
It is therefore a still further object of the present invention to provide a controller which, in many respects, can be considered a non-contact controller.
These and other objects are attained by the present invention wherein an optical navigation system is provided with a non-contact controller and a rotating control wheel or platter. At least a portion of the control wheel includes a flat material with a random pattern design on the surface for providing a reference for the optical sensor. Of the degrees of freedom of movement of the controller, one is provided by the rotation of the control wheel and at least one other is provided by the orthogonal movement of the control wheel. The non-contact controller can be velocity sensitive, motion sensitive, and/or position sensitive in each axis. The resulting output can be via virtually any standard computer connection, particularly connections to a standard personal computer (PC) or similar device. Typical connections include USB, firewire, serial or wireless connection. The use of the optical navigation system thereby creates a high resolution, high speed, multi-axis controller.
A typical application of the controller is for audio or disk jockey type applications.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSFurther objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description and from the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring now to the drawings in detail wherein like numerals indicate like elements throughout the several views, one sees that controller 10 is shown in perspective in
Optical navigation system 20 is secured to the base (not shown) and is positioned on the underside side of circular platter 14 about portion 16 to optically acquire sequential surface images (frames) and mathematically determine the direction and magnitude of movement. As shown in
To use this controller 10, the user rotates rotatable platter 14 and further rocks or tilts rotatable platter in any of the additional one or two degrees of freedom. The position, velocity or motion of rotatable platter 14 is detected by optical navigation system 20 and the resulting signal is transmitted to a computer (not shown) or similar digital device via output 32.
Thus the several aforementioned objects and advantages are most effectively attained. Although a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed and described in detail herein, it should be understood that this invention is in no sense limited thereby and its scope is to be determined by that of the appended claims.
Claims
1. A controller comprising:
- a rotatable platter journaled for rotation, said rotatable platter having at least one degree of freedom of movement in addition to rotation;
- an optical system responsive to said rotatable platter; and
- said optical system including an output responsive to said rotatable platter.
2. The controller of claim 1 wherein said rotatable platter includes a textured pattern whereby said optical system acquires sequential surface images of said textured pattern.
3. The controller of claim 2 wherein said optical system is responsive to rotational movement of said rotatable platter.
4. The controller of claim 2 wherein said optical system is responsive to rotational velocity of said rotatable platter.
5. The controller of claim 2 wherein said optical system is responsive to rotational position of said rotatable platter.
6. The controller of claim 1 wherein said at least one degree of freedom of movement comprises one degree of freedom of movement.
7. The controller of claim 6 wherein said one degree of freedom comprises tilting of said rotatable platter.
8. The controller of claim 7 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting movement of said rotatable platter.
9. The controller of claim 7 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting velocity of said rotatable platter.
10. The controller of claim 7 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting position of said rotatable platter.
11. The controller of claim 1 wherein said at least one degree of freedom of movement comprises two degrees of freedom of movement.
12. The controller of claim 11 wherein said two degrees of freedom comprise tilting of said rotatable platter in directions orthogonal to each other.
13. The controller of claim 12 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting movement of said rotatable platter.
14. The controller of claim 12 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting velocity of said rotatable platter.
15. The controller of claim 12 wherein said optical system is responsive to tilting position of said rotatable platter.
16. The controller of claim 1 wherein said rotatable platter includes a circumferential skirt with a textured pattern whereby said optical system acquires sequential surface images of said textured pattern.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 1, 2004
Publication Date: Sep 8, 2005
Patent Grant number: 7763843
Inventors: Alan Flum (Tamarac, FL), James Mazur (Lauderdale, FL)
Application Number: 10/790,441